Candy Crush Level 361- Crushed!

Looking for tips on Candy Crush level 361? It took about three weeks for me to get through it, so I have some:

1) Make your moves on the side of the board, especially in the column where the first fruit drops, as much as possible. That is critical. You want subsequent fruits to drop in the original column or a maximum of two columns over. After figuring this out, I frequently got 3 fruits in one column. Your efforts are doubled or tripled if you can get one striped candy to take out a column where 2-3 fruits are ready to collect. When you make moves all over the board, fruits drop all over the board. It's virtually impossible to create enough stripes to collect them that way.

2) Collect some lollipop hammers. If you're running out of moves and have a stack of fruits ready to exit and only a few candies in the way, just take them out with hammers. That's how I finally finished the level.

3) My order of preferred moves:
  a) create a vertically striped candy
  b) use a vertically striped candy in a combo, preferably to take out a column without a chocolate dispenser
  c) create a horizontally striped candy
  d) make a move along the bottom, with an effort to take out as many meringue blockers as possible on columns without chocolate dispensers
  e) make a move closest to the bottom as possible, with vertical combos preferred

4) Take out chocolate only as necessary. My final board was half covered in chocolate. Don't let it bother you unless it is encroaching on the area where you are working. Your occasional horizontal stripe combos will keep it at bay for the most part.

Good luck!!

In other news... I so love my coworkers and especially the Data Management gals. We are the most cohesive bunch of people I've been around since my college days. And best of all, we have absolutely the most fun lunch hour (or hour-and-a-half) on the planet every day.

:D

Saturday 9: Vacation (1982)
Unfamiliar with this week's song? Hear it here.

1) Do you know how to water ski?
Nope. And I'm perfectly content to watch from the boat while others do it.

2) Do you have 2014 vacation plans?
No.

3) Do you have a passport?
Yes.

4) If you took a 7-night cruise, could you completely unplug -- no phone calls, no texts, no internet?
I always unplug on cruises. It's one of my favorite parts of cruising... and it's too expensive not to. I have occasionally checked my email and Facebook literally once or twice (for about $10) during a week long cruise, but that's it.

5) Do you own a travel alarm clock?
Yes, but I just use my phone.

6) Though the Go-Gos broke up in 1985, they frequently reunite for live performances. What's the last concert you attended?
Maroon 5 and Kelly Clarkson in September at the Austin 360 Amphitheater. SO awesome.

7) Their first hit was "Our Lips Are Sealed." Can you be trusted with a secret?
Absolutely.

8) In 1982, when this song was popular, the comedy Tootsie was in theaters. What movie makes you laugh?
A bunch, but two of my very favorites are The Hangover and Pitch Perfect.

9) Sam is chewing on a Tums as she composes these questions. What's the last over-the-counter medication that you took?
Excedrin Migraine for an excruciating headache (not a migraine- just a sinus pressure thing from a front coming through) on Thursday. It worked after aspirin, Tylenol and Motrin had failed.